Sullia: According to a release from BJP, its first candidate for Dakshina Kannada district will be A.S. Angara who will be contesting for the 7th time.

BJP considers Sullia to be its stronghold and though there were other names doing round for this constituency, the party has given the ticket to the former MLA. Since 1994, BJP has continuously won at this constituency.

A.S. Angara was an R.S.S. worker who later joined the BJP. For his daily expenses, he used work as day wage laborer. In 1989, he got the opportunity to contest for elections. His age then was 27, now it’s 52.

In his first election, he faced defeat against Congress candidate K. Kushal. Since 1994, he has been victorious. All the five times, the difference of votes to his victory have increased. In 2004, the difference was highest and in 2013 it was the lowest.

For the last three elections, Dr. Raghu was the candidate for Congress and it is very likely that he will continue to be the party candidate for the upcoming elections. His name only remains to be announced. He is expected to submit his nomination on April 19th, informed Congress block leaders.

Hence, this will be the fourth time, Dr. Raghu and A.S. Angara will contest against each other at Sullia constituency. The first time they came face-to-face was in 2014. Then, Angara had won by 19,085 votes. In 2008, the difference fell to 4,322 and last time, Angara won by a mere difference of 1,373 votes.